Umoja Fest African Heritage Festival brings soul to Seafair. Celebrating the best of the African American community and African Diaspora culture in northwest featuring Music, Food, Culture, and family fun. More info: Umoja Fest (umojafestnw.com)
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Carole Cancler says
Thanks Queen Pearl. We updated our calendar time.
Queen Pearl says
They march from 23rd and Union at 1:00 p.m. to Jimi Hendrix Park home of the Northwest African American Musuem. All activities wrap up at 9:00p.m. Hope this helps. Go visit Omari there. He has taken back his property.
Carole Cancler says
“Brings the soul to Seafair” is not our phrasing. It was the tag line last year and in prior versions of the Umoja website. We don’t tend to make up descriptions, we take them directly from promoter websites. We curate, rather than produce.
As an African-American inspired festival, Umoja did exist 10 years before Seafair in several forms, initially as part of the International Festival, and then as the East Madison Mardi Gras and the Pacific Northwest Black Community Festival before evolving to become the Umoja festival.
It is a stretch to say that Umoja is “the” inspiration behind SEAFAIR. Several community festivals predate the 1940s version of Umoja, including White Center Jubilee Days (1923), Chinatown-International District/East Bon Odori (1933), and West Seattle Grand Parade (1935), all still part of Seafair today.
In 1950, Seattle business leaders recruited St. Paul, Minnesota’s Winter Carnival director Walter Van Camp to help produce a summertime event in Seattle, which began as “Sea Fair”, a 10-day “water festival” in August 1950. The Green Lake Aqua Theater was built specifically for the first event, but did not survive as the city transformed and grew.
The African-American community celebration is an important historical event in the city’s history and today remains an integral part of Seafair, one of about 75-community events. Many were likely inspired by the Seattle Black Community. We certainly hope Umoja continues for decades to come, as there are few other festivals which do bring “soul” to Seattle.
Lynn P says
I intend to make a showing at this festival, but I think the writer of this article has the history a bit backwards: Umoja Fest was held regularly long BEFORE Seafair. It doesn’t “bring soul” to Seafair. Rather, Seafair emerged without the original “soul” of the festival that inspired it. Check out the historical information on the Umoja Fest website.
Carole Cancler says
Their website does not list any hours that we could find. Most festivals are 11a-7p-ish, but Friday is often the evening only (5-9), Saturday can run early/later (until 10a-10m), and Sunday usually shuts down around 5.
Donna Mathes says
what are the hours?